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>> we're getting warmed up here! >> yes! things are getting warmed up! did you see that? he's a rock star. >> whoo! >> welcome to a super tuesday edition of "morning joe." today is a critical day in the race for president as voters across the country head to the polls. it's exciting. >> this is great. on the republican side, 595 delegates up for grabs. nearly half the total that is needed to lock down the nomination. the democrats, meanwhile, are fighting in much of the same territory. from vermont, virginia, massachusetts to minnesota, with donald trump and hillary clinton in commanding positions, mika. >> it may be the last best chance for their white house rivals to stop their march to the general election. we have the managing editors of

"bloomberg politics "bloomberg politics." the multi-branded boys. let's start here. and let's go ahead and just -- i have always been a big fan of killing hamlet in the first act. >> you tend to do that. i have a whole show prepared for you. >> read the last two pages of every book. sherlock we were watching an episode last night. she gets very excited. i go, at the end, he's not really dead. that's what i do! >> i have everything in order so it flows for people. >> this is beautiful because i am an organized, laid-out guy. on the republican side, nobody stops trump today, do they? like even texas is tight. >> no. i mean, i think he may win them all and he'll have a lot of delegates and he'll have all the momentum and i think the question will be begged who is left to stop him. >> john heilemann, ted cruz is

sounding right now like he knows this race is over. he is talking about how trump is going -- could win huge today. and even texas. i just saw a poll out that shows texas now very tight. nascar drivers coming out. the crowds are getting bigger. >> the head of nascar. >> katie bar the door. he is at 49% in the latest national poll. come on. stick a fork in it. this one is done, right? >> well, look. we've seen as you guys reported on yesterday there is a lot of chaos in the republican party right now. so the republican establishment finally has woken up to the fact that donald trump is the likely nominee and is kind of freaking out and has some reasons to do that. you can imagine a scenario today where ted cruz gets beaten in texas and decides to hang it up relatively soon thereafter. and that leaves marco rubio, if he has a strong day with a lot of strong seconds today, in a position to further his argument

that he is the person -- the last best hope to stop donald trump. you can say what you want to say about that argument, but he will be coming out of here conceivably in the scenario where he says everybody needs to rally around me. you can imagine that happening after today -- it might be too late but happening after today in a way it has not happened thus far. >> the question is why it took them so long to get there, willie geist. i love the revisionists out there. you know, we knew that -- no! we were in july, august, september, october, november, december, still having people on this set fighting us over donald trump. i remember one very esteemed person saying, so, you're saying he's going to win? i know you guys want him to win. no. that's not what we're saying. what we're saying is you can't provide data to show that he's not going to win. then they'd come back and say, oh, okay. you're saying he's going to win. no, we're not saying that.

it's been astounding, though, the arrogance of the elites in the republican party, and a lot of our good friends around -- i wish i could show all the people that have come through here since july making fun of us for saying this day was going to come. >> a pickup truck because of that. >> we can make fun of one guy. >> mike barnicle. >> he's legendary. mika said early on donald trump is going to win the republican nomination. everybody laughed. she bet mike barnicle a pickup truck. and she's going to win a pickup truck. >> you didn't really bet him a pickup truck, right? it was just a one-way bet. >> there was a piece of paper -- >> she's got a piece of paper because she knew he was going to win. she was also saying before everybody else was, he could win the general election. the question is, if we saw this

from july, why didn't the republican party see this? why didn't the elite see this? >> because they didn't do their homework. >> now that they've seen it it's too late. we read the "new york times" piece over the weekend about the establishment and the governors associations getting in the room trying to figure out how to stop trump. it was too late by that time. i don't think people actually believed this day was going to come. they thought somehow it would implode. it can't be real that donald trump. reality star. businessman. blow hard will be president of the united states or the nominee at least. here it is. marco rubio, for all the fight he put up the last week, and he did. what a lot of people asked him to do. if he loses all these states today, which he probably will. now he's putting his campaign on march 15th in florida, at which point he will have gone a month and a half with zero wins in a republican primary. >> after today he could be zero

for 15 or 16. we can go back and find these. i'm sure we will. every day, willie, i said it's august. when is this going to stop, people saying trump can't win. we did this all the way through december. people were still saying, he would never win. mika, we've actually been hammered by people saying, you're supporting donald. we're not supporting donald trump. we haven't supported donald trump. there was a great article in the "washington post" yesterday saying that even giving him a chance suggesting that his candidacy might be viable was so misperceived by an arrogant, mainstream media, that just saying he had a chance to win meant you were somehow supporting him. it's just a lie, and it's been a lie. i said very clearly on this show that i supported jeb bush time and time again. but we saw the viability here. nobody else did. and that's just -- okay. other than steve schmidt was the

only other person who came on this set and said it. >> what does the republican party -- yesterday you said what trump said about the ku klux klan over the weekend was disqualifying. a strong statement and one a lot of people agree with. what's the republican party supposed to do if its presumpti presumptive nominee has been in your view disqualified. >> i was flooded with texts and emails. >> it was your brother. >> i was texting with my brother all day. >> they have not been getting along. >> by 12:30 i said, it would be best if you stopped texting me and said i was part of a great conspiracy. >> this was joe. george! george! george, stop texting me. >> i think george thought that i was the head of the trilateral commission by the end of yesterday. i finally ended up saying, listen, it may be disqualifying for me. respect my opinion. it's not disqualifying for you.

and i said, you know, just like we've said all along he's going to win the republican nomination. so it's not disqualifying for him. the crowds are bigger, you know. i said what i believe personally. can i vote for a guy who still hasn't come out and condemned the ku klux klan? no. but a lot of people can. what does the republican party do? i tell you what they do. i'm flooded by emails of people going, would you help me? i would like to run his state operations in fill in the blank. obviously the establishment is starting to come together. they don't care what he said. you know why? because he is a winner. >> there is backlash and it does continue for donald trump after hedging on his position for support for david duke and the ku klux klan on sunday. this for a man so quick to call somebody a liar or a creep or a bad guy, which is something that didn't come to his mouth very

quickly when asked about david duke. he did not personally address the controversy yesterday beyond his comments on the "today" show. sticking with his stump speech at his rallies. his poernopponents stayed on th issue. mitt romney called his answer disqualifying and disgusting adding his coddling of republican bigotry is not in the character of america. this as others piled on. >> i have joked that there are not many iron rules in politics, but one that you can count on 100% of the time is the klan, always bad. nazis, always bad. you'll just never go wrong with that rule. either the klan or nazis, bad, bad, bad. and it seems somehow that donald missed that briefing. >> south carolina went through a terrible tragedy last year. and the kkk came to south carolina from out of state to protest on our state house

grounds. i will not stop until we fight a man that chooses not to disavow the kkk. that is not a part of our party. that's not who we want as president. we will not allow that in our country. >> do you realize that, if he is our nominee, americans will say, a republican is someone like donald trump. a conservative means donald trump. we are going to lose a generation of voters and a generation of americans. most of whom want to be nothing like donald trump. [ cheers and applause ] there is no room in the conservative movement and there is no room in the republican party for members of the ku klux klan or for racists like david duke. >> donald trump supporters, mean while, responded to the chrwith

from his new supporter jeff sessions of alabama and his spokesperson, katrina pearson who invoked the late senator robert byrd of west virginia. >> senator robert byrd, are you kidding me? >> what are you saying about robert byrd? >> he endorsed barack obama and no one said his political career is over. no one asked him to disavow -- >> can you comparing robert byrd to david duke? are you really? >> we're talking about a clansman. >> that was long in his past. that's a smear. >> david duke denounced the kkk a long time ago too. >> the right answer to this is, this country does not discriminate. no president, no officer in this country should hold office that has any hint of treating people differently because of the color of their skin or where they came from. and that kind of thing. we believe in equality and fair treatment and that's the moral

principle that we adhere to as a nation. and i hope he makes that clear. >> jeff sessions came out strongly, willie geist, yesterday. >> he did. >> just said, hey, don't know exactly how he answered it, but this is what he needs to say. >> we heard a lot of that. he had endorsed donald trump. so that was a significant talking point from the trump campaign that we heard yesterday from governor huckabee, oh, yeah. robert byrd endorsed president obama. he is half a century removed from his relationship with the klan so i'm not sure it's a fair comparison. >> what's interesting is somehow, while donald trump is being defended, i am seeing a lot of chatter out there also trying to defend david duke. he was only a member of the klan for two or three years. he was only this or that. let's just say social media. it's nonstop. i heard this robert byrd talking point as well. i was bombarded by multiple

sources yesterday. john heilemann, electorally, in the primary, it doesn't mautter. he's going to win huge margins. he may lock this thing down tonight. >> that is certainly true. obviously something that comes up this late. there has been a lot of early voting. trump has a lot of support. the impact of what happens tonight is minimal. i do think that, in terms of -- we have no idea at this point what's going to happen in terms of the establishment efforts to try to stop trump. to me now the only way to stop trump is with a contested convention. there is not a way where trump doesn't have, i think, the most delegates. if he ends up with not -- if he doesn't get to the magic number, is there an effort to try to stop him at a convention. people in the republican party who looked on that display related to the kkk this weekend in horror about what it would

mean not just for a general election but for the future of your party, joe, i think they'd look at that and say that will increase people's agitation and urgency about trying to figure out some way to stop him. it may be futile, but i do think it has increased that sense to the party that this could be a problem. >> can i just answer? it is futile. they won't be able to stop him. mark halperin, we saw this at the beginning. going back, it's all in the transcripts, people can look at it. we said if he won iowa he would run the board. you and me. if he didn't win iowa he would win new hampshire. south carolina was home field advantage. after that he would be even stronger in the sec primaries. we all said trump is strongest in the south. we've been saying that for six months. what is so remarkable is this republican party that set up the debates, that set up the front-loaded process, that set up the winner-take-all states,

were working around the clock to get the most establishment figure they could locked down as early as possible, and everything they did has played right into donald j. trump's hands. >> they made a process such that someone could be the nominee quickly, and now he may lock up the nomination. look, watch mitt romney, watch paul ryan, watch john kasich. those three guys i think hold the key to any possibility, any possibility, that trump isn't the de facto nominee in two weeks. >> what can they do? >> i think, if kasich wins ohio and everyone else is out of the race and a one on one, a true one on one, john kasich versus donald trump. it would be interesting. >> it's too late. the freight train is steaming down the hill. >> it's probably too late, but that's the one possibility i see to keep him under 42% of the delegates. >> the last hope you hear consistently is the one john

just outlined, which is a brokered convention. imagine that scenario where donald trump has won a majority of the delegates and votes from the people -- >> not a majority. if he had a majority he would have the nomination. >> excuse me. a plurality of the votes. >> he gets there and his supporters say -- a bunch of people say we're going to take this away from him. >> a big disclosure about hillary clinton or donald trump could change the calculus. >> let's get to the democrats. 870 pledged delegates at stake today. more than a thousand if you count super delegates. a steep climb for senator bernie sanders. because of hillary clinton's massive lead among super delegates the total count headed into today's contest is clinton 519, sanders, 86. the clinton campaign is spending around $6.4 million across all 11 states voting today while sanders is on the air waves in

just five states. recent polling shows clinton leading by anywhere between 20 and 50 points in each of the southern contests today. other polls suggest sanders has a chance to pick off some states in the northeast and midwest. a new monmouth poll out of oklahoma has him ahead by five points. and a new umass amherst poll shows the race in massachusetts is a dead heat. and that's where the senator held his final pre-super tuesday rally last night. >> you know what, i look around this crowd tonight. i think we're going to win here in massachusetts. [ cheers and applause ] >> when we began, we had no money. we had no political organization, and people outside of new england really didn't know who bernie sanders was. and we were taking on perhaps one of the best-known people in this country, somebody who had been anointed by the

establishment as the democratic nominee. well, a lot has changed in the last ten months. [ cheers and applause ] >> no matter the outcome today, sanders certainly has the war chest to fight on. the $21 million he took in january was the most raised of any presidential candidate in the entire field. and yesterday his campaign announced that they doubled that total in the month of february, raising more than $41 million. >> so what's the breakdown today? or after this is over tonight, are we looking at a big hillary clinton win, and does bernie sanders -- he has the money to fight on -- where does he catch up with her? >> he can't. i don't think it will be probably close to mathematically impossible. not only will she win big victories in most of the states

with big delegate totals at stake, places like texas and georgia. she is fighting him in places where he's trying to fight. she won oklahoma in 2008. he said i'm going to fight in oklahoma, minnesota, colorado, massachusetts, vermont. she could win massachusetts. she could win oklahoma. if she wins a couple of those states, in addition to the ones she wins because of the huge margin she has with the african-american vote, she could wake up tomorrow having won nine out of ten or 12 -- >> what happened? was the tripping point all nevada? if bernie had won nevada -- what's happened in the last two weeks. >> they just needed to play the expectations game better and not be -- the cnn poll came out and showed him tied and they acted like they were going to win. a five-point loss was not really that bad in the expectations game but they mishandled it and scha changed the whole thing around.

the delegate math after tonight will be inex orable. they'll start to argue there is no way for him to catch up instead of starts to beat her 60-40 or better. >> when we wake up tomorrow morning will we be saying, barring an unforeseen circumstance, hillary clinton will be going up against donald trump in the fall. >> the voters should decide in the subsequent states but mathematically and logically that's what we'll see. >> the voters will decide but -- >> the key difference between the scenarios is that in the republican party there are winner take all states. the democratic party doesn't have that, so they will have the situation where, because of proportional delegate allocation she says, look, he has to win -- bernie sanders would have to win victories with 61, 62%. those won't happen which will make it hard mathematically for him to catch up. >> he'll keep fighting all the way to the convention. >> she'll start to reach out to him and his supporters in a

gracious way. there is no downside to her. >> one person will help her do that. >> elizabeth warren? >> probably. >> in the republican party donald trump can try to reach out graciously but there will be people who support other candidates and other candidates who will never give in to him. >> does marco stay in until the end? marco can't lose florida, right? >> i believe if he is shut out between now and florida that he will not run in florida. that's my sense. he would be crazy to go into florida 0 for whatever and lose in florida. >> isn't that going to happen? where will he win? >> i don't know? >> if ted cruz loses tonight, will he be out, texas? >> i think within 48 hours. ben carson joins the conversation. plus, republican senator ben sasse who says in a race between donald trump and hillary clinton he would support neither. but first. the world is run by the man. >> who? >> the man. oh, you don't know the man? he's everywhere. in the white house, down the

hall, miss mullins. she is the man. and the man ruined the ozone and he's burning down the amazon and he kidnapped shamu and put her in the chlorine tank, okay. there used to be a way to stick it to the man. it was called rock and roll! >> in this election cycle the man is the establishment and donald trump and bernie sanders are rock and roll. we'll explain how the status quo has become a kiss of death. her a bill karins with the forecast. >> thunderstorms causing problems in arkansas. we'll watch this throughout the morning hours. the storms will intensify later today and move through the southeast for additional voting issues. 22 million people at risk of severe storms today including arkansas early today. then we push into tennessee, through alabama and north georgia late today. those are the voting states. the super tuesday forecast. we're watching a winter storm on the northern edge. areas to the north will deal with some snow.

not voting today in michigan or wisconsin. up to the north in vermont, know will come in late today into tonight. i think everyone will be all done voting. same for massachusetts with some ice tonight. snow and ice holds off until after midnight, no problems there. virginia looking nice today. the thunderstorms will only last about a half hour. you don't want to get caught outside in nashville, montgomery, birmingham or oklahoma. we'll clear the storms out early in arkansas. if you vote this afternoon. no issues. the only problem spots are in the deep south as we watch the strong line of thunderstorms pushing through. leave you with a shot of new york city with a nice, mild day today. could be snow in the forecast in the days ahead. more on that as we go through the week. you're watching "morning joe."

most new wealth flows it's called a rigged economy, and this is how it works. to the top 1%. it's a system held in place by corrupt politics where wall street banks and billionaires buy elections. my campaign is powered by millions of small contributions. people like you who want to fight back. the truth is you can't change a corrupt system by taking its money. i'm bernie sanders. i approve this message. join us for real change.

we're winning with old. we're winning with young. we're winning with highly educated. right? we're winning with a little bit less than highly educated which is okay. i love you. and we're winning with the vet

ran veterans. i love the veterans. we're winning with the military. in other words, we're winning with everybody. >> and with nascar drivers as well. that was donald trump last night at an event in south georgia in front of another massive crowd. he picked up the support of the ceo of nascar and some big-name drivers, including bill elliott. >> mika, one of the biggest problems for the republican establishment trying to stop donald trump is from the very beginning we were noticing, talking about him winning with everybody -- it's my brother. >> i'll take it. i don't want to see the two of you fight. >> yeah. so the difference is, with other candidates, it used to be that the republican establishment was split up in all these different directions. donald trump is winning with everybody, as you said. you can't go into a poll and say, well, we'll pick him off here or there. he was winning with the evangelicals. he was winning with conservatives. he's been winning with moderate

and even with people considered to be more liberal. when you're winning with every demographic group it's hard to figure out you're going to pick him off. >> republican brass are trying to figure out what strategy that hasn't already been tried to cork to stop trump. the party's calendar designed to prevent messy fighting greased the path as trump begins to take away. the paper reported over the weekend at least two campaigns drafted plans to overtake mr. trump in a brokered convention. >> lots of luck. >> mitch mcconnell has a plan to allow law makers to go their own way in the general election. john coren acknowledged that many senators will have to separate themselves from trump if somebody like him in the nominee. >> this is a republican party still not really getting it. i always use kelly ayotte as a perfect example. would you rather that donald trump at the top of the ticket or ted cruz? if you're kelly ayotte, would

you rather have donald trump at the top of the ticket or a candidate named marco rubio that still is saying there is not an exception for abortion even in rape, incest or the life of the mother. that's not a rhetorical question. >> you would rather that john kasich. >> well, but that's -- maybe that will happen. but i wouldn't put my money on it right now. if you're looking, though, at the choice between trump and the two people right now that are going up against trump, this argument is an argument that is truly borne out of washington. not -- i guarantee you they were saying the same thing about ronald reagan at this point in 1976 and 1980. >> the difference is there are leading figures in the republican party who will never accept donald trump as the nominee. that wasn't the case. reagan brought the party together in a big way. >> let's see. >> look, you are already starting to hear -- both on the

show yesterday -- former elected official and one a big thinker who has been on the show many times and both said they would never vote for trump. a lot of republicans' attitude are like that. hundreds of establishment republicans over the next few weeks will come out and say i'll vote for hillary clinton instead of donald trump. they'll say it over the course of the next few weeks and that was not true with ronald reagan. >> you also see people now -- people always follow the power in washington, d.c. blindly follow the power. you'll also see people moving towards consolidation. >> joining us in washington. chief national correspondent for the "new york times" magazine mark lebowitz. he writes this, what is the establishment over than one of those words that political types toss around to describe something that might not actually egxist in the real world.

to be part of the establishment is most certainly a bad look in today's politics. it represents a catch-all notion to describe people in charge and implies that they have been ensconced too long. the establishment is tired and musty and too comfortable, yet it is still invoked constantly as a phantom solution. the establishment will step in and bring order to this chaos. they are the parents who will arrive just as the party has grown out of control the party is trashed and the cops are taking names. oh, that would make my parents the establishment, i guess. my brother's parties. >> i guess so. there was a time actually when there were the harrimans and there were the rockefellers and there were the graces and there were the establishment, in the political and business world. those days are gone, aren't they? >> yeah. no. it was a much more orderly time. what we're talking about here is -- the leader. the leaders of the republican

party. i mean, these people either don't exist or they certainly don't exist in the minds of the hundreds of thousands of people who are going to vote for donald trump and who will vote for donald trump. we'll see in the next few months, i think, this mix and match of these people who are coming out -- the republicans who come out and say they'll not vote for donald trump under any circumstances, but then the undercurrent of this is what about the conservative democrats, the blue-collar democrats or the people who are actually turning out who have nothing to do with the notions that the people in the chambers talk about. >> the establishment, that term has become a pejorative, particularly this time around, donald trump and bernie sanders running against the establishment. was there a time when it was seen as good to be in the establishment? >> i think it was. if you look at it, the last few nominees, if you look at john mccain or mitt romney, were seen as the establishment choices. there was this notion that, after the first few primaries

the establishment would coalesce around whoever gives them the best chance of winning. frankly, donald trump is just a scrambler of the whole equation here, and i think the establishment has become almost a straw man. i think, even in the first -- in the iowa caucuses, the winners, bernie sanders -- i guess bernie sanders certainly in his victory speech or in his tying of hillary speech and ted cruz, you heard the establishment over and over and over again as an example of everything that the insurgents are fighting against. frankly, this is what this election has shown over and over again. >> think about this. as far as the establishment goes, when did it matter? well, after reagan, think about it, that everybody but bob dole, who has been seen as the epitome of the republican establishment, every nominee had a father that either ran the united states of america or was a senator or ran michigan and a car company or

ran the united states navy. whether it was romney, mccain, bush 43 or bush 41. the republican party has done nothing but nominate establishment types since 1988. >> wow. >> it's true. i mean, look, that is part of the traditional model of the lineage. hillary clinton is clearly the establishment choice in the democrats. she has married to a two-term president. i think it's much less true among democrats but look, i think the republican establishment is a lot weaker in somuch as the democrats -- than the democrats. i think it's a lot more susceptible to the kind of encoura insurgency that donald trump has been able to coalesce. >> thank you. the state department this morning has released the last of

hillary clinton's emails from her private server. but has she put that issue and bernie sanders behind her as she looks to pivot to the general election? we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." [burke] at farmers, we've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. even "turkey jerks." [turkey] gobble. [butcher] i'm sorry! (burke) covered march fourth,2014. talk to farmers. we've seen almost everything, so we know how to cover almost anything. ♪ we are farmers. bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum ♪

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so you know it's bad when even the kkk is like, let's be careful with this guy because we're not sure. >> welcome back to "morning joe." did you see what happened yesterday on the supreme court? clarence thomas ends his ten-year silence on the court in a gun chase. >> he thought he should speak out. >> i thought it was fascinating. the "wall street journal" has a piece. the clinton coronation resumes. if over for sanders. the must-read opinion pages are next. "morning joe" is back in a moment. ment opportunities. i've got a fantastic deal for you- gold! with the right pool of investors, there's a lot of money to be made. but first, investors must ask the right questions and use the smartcheck challenge to make the right decisions. you're not even registered; i'm done with you! i can...i can... savvy investors check their financial pro's background by visiting smartcheck.gov

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labeled top secret. none of the emails in the archive had classification markings when originally sent or received. >> what happens here? are staff members going to have to get lawyered up? is this looking more like hillary clinton may not get indicted but some of her staff members may be under the gun. >> they can look pick-and-roll -- look political if they don't move aggressively. i think people will be interviewing. you have to worry about what you say. there is the possibility of perjury. they seem to be going step by step. i believe the next step will be interviews. >> i agree with that. it will continue to hover. one of the interesting things i think on the democratic side right now is that, you know, a lot of establishment democrats who were terrified last fall that hillary clinton -- that these issues could be a real problem for her in a general election, they got distracted by the bernie sanders threat and they started worrying about bernie sanders as the main thing they were now concerned about.

now that it looks like hillary clinton is in a position to be the presumptive democratic nominee the establishment will be happy that bernie sanders is gone but it also will be -- now turn it's attention back to another thing to worry about about hillary clinton, which is this. >> all right. joining us now in washington, pulitzer prize-winning editorial writer for the "washington post" jonathan capehart and hugo burgen. >> hugo, briefly, what is your view this morning on the morning of super tuesday where it looks like donald trump could be in a position to all but lock down the republican nomination? how do conservatives and how do republicans respond to that? >> i don't know that they have very much response. the truth is that donald trump has rolled his tanks onto the front yard lawn of the republican party, and they are terrified. they, as you have said in the earlier parts of the program, that their response is too late.

and i think one of the most interesting responses is the one that game from senator ben sasse yesterday that he would rather not vote for donald trump or clinton and that there was an opportunity or a possibility of a third-party run. a real conservative. and i can see a number of people thinking that that's the way to go rather than endorsing either of these candidates with their votes. >> so if -- do you think the initial mistake was to laugh and not take donald trump seriously as a serious candidate? >> yeah. i think that that was -- i think what happened was that people assumed for months, not on this program but people assumed for months that he was going to collapse of his own accord and he's gone directly from being someone that they assumed was inevitably going to collapse to someone who is now intevitable for the actual nomination. i think it's probably too late for them to do anything. i think the one thing that, if you look at the numbers, although it's very unlikely, it

seems to me that the only possibility that conservatives and the establishment unite to oppose him. and the only person who can actually unite those two sides is marco rubio because the establishment absolutely hates ted cruz. >> i am still surprised that so many could not see his connection with people, which was deep. >> yeah. >> he can't walk anywhere without literally becoming surrounded with 250 people and connecting with every single one, having a great time doing it. >> also with the working class. >> that's what i mean. >> -- americans, willie. you look, and you look to those people in the rallies from the very beginning, and it was working-class americans, middle-class americans. a lot of democrats, we've been saying for six months, democrats coming up to us saying, hey, i am a democrat but i like this trump guy. >> that's the divide that's there even this morning on super tuesday. for six months to a year now you have had all the people -- elites, people on television, donors, people in washington,

who are appalled by donald trump. and then you have the rest of the people who love donald trump. his supporters who are saying we like what he stands for even when he says something like he did a few days ago. there is outrage everywhere you look on tv and in washington. then he turns out 5,000 or 6,000 people and he'll sweep through super tuesday. >> i was telling mark halperin and the multitude of texts that i was dealing with all day yesterday saying, hey, he didn't do what i would have done on that show. is he a racist? no, he's not. do i accept him like i accept all politicians, warts and all, because he is the one guy that can clean up washington and get jobs back to america? yes, i do. that was george's attitude. i think you can multiply that probably a million times over with trump supporters across this country. we take him, warts and all, and it seems like every time he does something like that, to them it's not like, hey, it's a dog whistle.

they're like he's not a good politician. you media types, joe, you jump on anybody for any mistake they make. >> as bill clinton likes to say, if you want a perfect candidate vote for someone else. i think people are underestimating what's going to happen tonight when trump starts winning states and people look at the map and see his dominance. not just in the south but doing well in massachusetts and some of the western states. this will be a night when people focus more than they ever have on how dominant he is. >> i think we may have a frank reynolds moment. like in 1988. >> i think we've already had that moment. the clinton coronation resumes. so much for bernie sanders and the revolution. hillary clinton's blowout victory in south carolina on saturday combined with her huge polling leads in most super tuesday states shows that the democratic party coronation has

resumed. barring new revelations it looks like only the fbi probe into hillary's emails and her mishandling of classified information can derail her now. republicans keep telling themselves that mrs. clinton is a lousy candidate, and so she is by any conventional measure but an election always come down to a choice and the gop is likely to have the harder time uniting behind its eventual nominee especially if it is mr. trump. then again, if mrs. clinton does become our next president perhaps she can make chris christie her attorney general. ca >> jonathan, go ahead. >> talk about a fastball there. look, senator sanders, depending on what happens tonight, senator sanders, we have to admit and agree, has made hillary clinton a better candidate. she always gets better when she is challenged, when she is pushed into a corner and forced to fight. and one of the complaints about her campaign early on among

democrats was that it's a coronation. she is acting like she deserves this position. senator sanders -- excuse me -- or better or for worse, forced her to fight for every single vote. what she did in south carolina was truly, truly incredible. but the one thing and i'm actually working on this now and hopefully will write it and get it out later today, is that, even though she had that massive victory over senator sanders in south carolina, vote totals are down among democrats from 2008 to just last saturday. the number of democrats voting is down. and so we have seen that from state after state after state. iowa, new hampshire, compared to republicans where the number of republicans voting over 2008 are going through the roof. and so, if hillary clinton has any hope or chance, if she is the nominee and if donald trump is the nominee, she has got to

get the democratic party base out to vote for her in november, again, if she is the nominee. >> willie, i got a text from my mother. breaking news. he is making a disavowal this morning. >> george writes a long text. >> this is all from yesterday. look at that. look at that. those are letters. no! i'm telling you, i am a member of the establishment. >> he loves trump! >> wow! >> he said, as long as you are waiting for a disavowal from me this is what you get. i disavow marco and ted. so hugo, therein lies the reality going into super tuesday this evening. a lot of people like my brother tonight are going to be supporting donald trump and anybody else -- anybody else -- that's not donald trump, is the establishment. >> right. there's a really weird thing going on, i think, in the election right now relating to

trump. normally when a candidate looks like he is wrapping up the nomination, he tries to become more presidential. what we've been seeing with trump over the last four or six weeks is that, as he becomes more and more probable in fact, inevitable, he has become less presidential. he seems to be trying to push as far as he can go and testing how far he can go. and i think that that's one of the reasons why, just at the moment that he's -- he seems to have become inevitable he has also become more clearly unacceptable. the not disavowing david duke and the kkk was one example. it shouldn't take 24 hours for someone to decide that they're going to disavow someone like that. this is why the establishment has got in such a twist right now. i think they didn't panic earlier on because they, a, thought he would collapse and, b, he had not made him self-as evidently unacceptable as he has now. >> hugo gurdon, thank you very

much. hillary clinton has fought for things single women care about. why are so few voting for her. the most potent political force in america. chuck todd, eugene robinson and steve schmidt on this super tuesday. "morning joe" is coming right back. the microsoft cloud allows us to access information from anywhere. the microsoft cloud allows us to scale up. microsoft cloud changes our world dramatically. it wasn't too long ago it would take two weeks to sequence

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set to vote any minute in his home state of vermont. last night on the plane his wife jane told reporters that super tuesday could prove to be a rough map for them. presidential candidate ben carson joins us to explain why he is rejecting calls to drop out of the republican race. a political analyst steve schmidt and the "washington post" eugene robinson join the table. "morning joe" will be right back. how was your commute? good. yours? good. xerox real time analytics make transit systems run more smoothly... and morning chitchat... less interesting. transportation can work better. with xerox. thank you for calling. we'll be with you shortly. yeah right... xerox predictive analytics help companies provide a better and faster customer experience. hello mr. kent. can i rebook your flight? i'm here! customer care can work better. with xerox. wait i'm here! mr. kent?

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>> yeah. then people in flint, michigan, were like. go ahead. that seems like fun. it's a good joke. i guess you had to be there. >> welcome back to "morning joe." it is super tuesday. it's so exciting! i love super tuesday. >> it is. it's -- >> march 1st. joining the conversation former mccain senior campaign strategist and msnbc political analyst steve schmidt. in washington, pulitzer prize winning columnist and associate editor of the "washington post" -- what? >> he's right here. >> why are you yelling in my ear, alex? >> we have gene robinson and mark halperin still with us as well. schmidt, tonight is a big night.

do you see anything that would stop donald trump from having a massive victory on the republican side? >> no. donald trump when you look, wants ted cruz to win the state of texas. if ted cruz fell out in texas, donald trump beat him there, forces ted cruz's hands, denies him a rationale to keep going in the race. right now, if you are donald trump, you want as many candidates in this race as possible. >> we've talked time and time again about, you know, the first four states and how trump will be really strong in, you know, south carolina and new hampshire and then actually -- i said first four states. then also talked about super tuesday and the deep south. i mean, can you explain the accelerator effect here where, you win new hampshire, you accelerate into south carolina and then you accelerate into the deep south. so a guy who was at 30% in the polls before all of his winning started, two weeks later now is sitting in 50%. there's just -- i don't see anything that can stop that

momentum. >> in a political campaign you're managing against two commodities, time and money. when you look at the time of a campaign, the clock management is an under appreciated virtue just as in sports. when go to south carolina, candidates say i'm going to win but i'll win later. deeper in the process. >> never works. >> never works because they lose the first 14 or 15 contests. >> it didn't work with giuliani and it's not working with rubio. >> so mark halperin is exactly correct. when you watch the network coverage tonight and you see the depth and breadth of trump's potential victories in these states, the acceleration, then, into the next big state contests in the middle of the march goes on to the next level. because when we see these states begin to drop into that column tonight, the totality of it becomes real, and it suffocates

the oxygen for these other candidates. >> mark said something else earlier, steve which is, if it gets too far out of hand marco rubio may not even run in the state of florida. he doesn't want to suffer an embarrassing defeat in his home state. do you believe that to be true? >> i think an incumbent united states senator in his 40s cannot afford to lose his home state in a presidential contest and have any hope in the future of being elected governor of that state, running for president again. the truth is that most republican nominees, with the exception of george w. bush, who have been around a lot of presidential campaigns, they don't make it through the process their first time. marco rubio has a lot of track in front of him in his career, but he loses his home state in a presidential contest, that track is shortened for all time. he becomes the guy who lost his home state. >> cannot do it. especially losing to trump by maybe 20 points. gene robinson on the democratic

side are we saying the same thing about hillary clinton on the democratic said tonight? >> we kind of were saying it after south carolina but yes. i think we'll be using the phrase "presumptive nominee" unless bernie sanders were to pull off some -- >> something unusual. >> -- huge surprise, something we're not expecting. i don't think anybody picks that up. he has run an amazing campaign and he still has all this money. he's able to raise money in a way that -- i was going to say nobody since obama but he's better than obama at it. >> yeah. >> it's amazing. >> but connecting with really important parts of the democratic constituency is something he hasn't quite done yet. that's fatal. >> might be too late. 595 of the 1,237 republican delegates needed to nominate are up for grabs. many of the latest polls show trump with a clear advantage. in alabama, a new monmouth poll shows trump ahead by 23 points. 42% to marco rubio's 19%.

cruz at 16. at 35%, the monmouth poll in oklahoma gives trump a 12 point lead. in massachusetts, the umass amherst poll finds trump has an enormous 32-point lead. 47 to rubio and cruz tied at 15%. john kasich at 11. but in texas, where 155 delegates are at stake polls have shown ted cruz with the edge leading trump in a new emerson college poll 35% to 32%. cruz needs 45% to clear 47 statewide delegates or he'll have to split them proportionally with anyone who finishes over 20%. that's complicated. >> i suspect ted cruz will win in texas unless the momentum is just overwhelming. if he does not, the same thing we say about marco rubio we can say about ted cruz in texas. >> yeah. it's hard to see his path.

i am wondering, frankly, if it's all that bad for trump if he manages to beat cruz in texas, just because the idea that, if cruz were out of the race, all his people would suddenly flock over to marco rubio doesn't seem right to me. ted cruz's voters are committed conservatives. they don't see marco rubio as one of them. i just don't see this sort of consolidation of anti-trump. >> in the way people are predicting. >> that's the mistake that people have made all along where they've said, oh, once jeb's people are out they'll go to marco. they went to trump. when cruz's people are out a lot of them will go to trump. trump said it a couple weeks ago. the math doesn't add up. that's what was always hilarious. even when we were saying trump would probably win the nomination, we would say, yes, but 75% of republicans are

incensed. the "new york times" wrote an article saying what do the 65% of republicans say who hate donald trump? you could have said 85 who couldn't stand marco rubio. it was always this stupid miscalculation. and the mainstream media's ignorance in this case was fueled by their contempt and their arrogance for this candidacy, and, you know, you can have contempt for something and still analyze it with a clear head. >> right. >> that's something that most in the press were never able to do. >> that argument saying what about the other 65% is actually part of a marco rubio's stump speech. he says that out there. he says, yes, he cleaned up in new hampshire. yes, he cleaned up in south carolina but what about these other people? as the others have fallen out of the race we've gone from 16 to 5. donald trump's leads in many ways have grown, not trump. >> so a growing controversy around donald trump on one of his signature issues, immigration, "buzzfeed" reports

an off the record session with the "new york times" editorial board the republican frontrunner suggested some flexibility in his stance on the issue. the article points to a recent column from gail collins who wrote the most optimistic analysis of trump as a prl presidential candidate is that he just doesn't believe in positions except the ones you adopt for strategic purposes when making a deal so you obviously can't explain how you're going to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants because it's going to be the first bid in some future monster negotiation session. what a potential negotiation would include is now the matter of speculation, the "new york times" editorial page editor told buzzfeed that they might comment if trump asked them to release this transcript. trump addressed whether he talked about cutting a deal in an interview last night. >> we had a board meeting off the record. all of a sudden they leak it. it's all over the place. >> that it's negotiable.

>> it is negotiable. i'll be honest with you. i'll make the wall two feet shorter or something. everything is negotiable. >> it's not negotiable about building it. >> building? no. >> mitt romney tweeted another bomb shell. trump should authorize the "new york times" to release the transcript of his editorial board interview with the hash tag "what is he hiding?" and trump's opponents piled on. >> apparently he told them what he really believes about immigration which sounds like what he told them was different than what he's telling you. donald trump should ask the "new york times" to release the audio of his interview with them so that we can see exactly what it is he truly believes about this issue he's made the cornerstone of his campaign. >> the "new york times" has a tape of donald saying everything i'm saying on immigration i'm just saying because the voters like it. i don't intend to do anything. donald, if you're sitting in that hat and telling the "new york times" that you're lying to

the voters, the voters have a right to know this. >> mika, you know me. i just fell off the turnip truck coming in this morning. >> i saw that. >> poor country lawyer. >> 48th street. >> kind of dumb. but i thought off the record comments were off the record. first of all, secondly. i wonder if marco and ted would like all of their off the record comments that they have given over the course of this entire campaign released as well. >> well, now -- >> this is -- this is ridiculous to -- i mean, first of all, for the "new york times" to take off the record comments and then leak them just tells me, never have an off-the-record conversation with the "new york times." >> ever. >> they need to get a statement out. you know, i'm all big on, hey, get your statement out today.

the "new york times" needs to get a statement out today saying that this was inappropriate and their sources can be assured that, if they give them information off the record they will not leak it selectively when it -- when it adopts -- when it fits their political agenda. >> okay. so because the "new york times" is a news organization, maybe it's different, but i'm sure hillary clinton's wall street speeches were off the record, right? right? >> yeah. >> so should they be released? >> is that off the record? i mean, that's -- >> i'm just asking. just because it's not a news organization? >> no. that is -- it's completely different. >> totally different. >> if i go to you and say i've got a great story to you but i have to tell it to you off the record, okay. or if you ask me a question, why do you do this this way on the show, it doesn't make sense, joe. i'll tell you off the record to give you sort of more of an understanding of the decisions that we make. i tell that to you. >> exactly.

>> you are able to write your story better. >> there is a certain amount of trust involved. you're right. >> you don't burn me just like i wouldn't burn you. >> exactly. >> this "new york times" thing is pretty astounding, isn't it? >> kind of, yeah. because that is a -- those are sort of sacrosanct. i'm not a member of the "washington post" editorial board but off the record -- it means it never happened, basically. you know, you don't -- you don't -- >> only in a journalistic setting. >> you don't acknowledge publicly that such a meeting took place. there is an understanding that the editorial boards talk to the candidates. everybody could assume that something like that happened. but no. it's -- off the record means off the record? >> in a journalistic setting. >> david, this feeds into what i was saying before. the media, the establishment, could not separate their

personal feelings from the story. and so they never saw trump coming because they had so much contempt for trump. here you have the "new york times" supposedly the gold standard -- >> right. >> -- having information from an off-the-record editorial board meeting leaked. they would never do that in a million years to hillary clinton. they'd never do it in marco rubio. they'd never even do it to ted cruz. >> not even in a billion years, joe. >> not in a billion years. but they're doing it to donald trump. >> it's a great journalism story. from time to time the "new york times" will make pronouncements about its policies and the handling of on-the-record comments, background, off-the record, saying that we won't allow off-the-record dispensation to be granted to certain sources. why was the "new york times" having an off the record editorial session with a presidential candidate. being that it's off the record, why is it leaking now? who is leaking it at the "new

york times"? what's the policy with regard to attribution at the "new york times." i tell you, if i was running the donald trump campaign every "new york times" reporter on that plane would be off of it until and unless they clarify the attributional policies of the newspaper. >> i agree with you. >> and adhere to them. >> every single "new york times" reporter should be kicked off the plane, should not be given press access, anything until the editor of the "new york times" explains to the candidate and explains to the readers exactly what happened here. and again, i know that there are some stupid people that are going to watch this going, oh, you're doing donald trump's bidding. no, we're not. >> this is exactly the mistake. it's the laughing at first, the scoffing, the disdain, the "oh, my god, he can't do it." then you're caught with your pants down being so wrong that you start doing things that are outside the realm of your

editorial instincts and morals. because you can't stand it. >> we have been saying this. mika, willie and i have been saying this since july or august. it's always the media's overreach that feeds right in to donald trump. >> here is the other thing from a journalism perspective that i think is important. off the record status in an interview granted affirmatively by a reporter is truly one of the last handshake business arrangements alive in america. because i know with certainty that if i said to eugene robinson, i would like to say something off the record. say i am a whistle blower and gene says, yes, i'm going to give you off-the-record status, i know that gene robinson will go to jail before he discloses the source of an off-the-record attribution. it's a big deal.

>> everything we've just said is true. i really believe it. the one thing on the other side kind of unrelated issue but i have to mention it. the way trump treats the media at his rallies, i think is disgraceful. >> horrible. >> the way he shouts at them and points at them and says that they're scum and all that. >> right. >> all that said -- >> here is the deal. if the "new york times" is so repulsed by his horrible behavior say, we're not only going to not take anything you say off the record, we don't want to talk to you. >> there is the journalistic question and then there is the political question. this does not hurt donald trump one bit. it makes his case for him that the establishment is out to get us. we've got to win this election to defeat people like the "new york times" and the establishment in washington. >> it helps him. >> steve schmidt thank you very much. gene, stay with us if you can. still ahead. chuck todd and steve kornacki join us to look at how the

states need to break if someone is to stop donald trump. presidential candidate ben carson joins us live. can he pull off a surprise win in any of the 11 republican states? senator ben sasse joins us as well. he says he will look outside the party if donald trump is the nominee. you're watching "morning joe." we'll be right back. >> start looking! ♪ owen! hey kevin. hey, fancy seeing you here. uh, i live right over there actually. you've been to my place. no, i wasn't...oh look, you dropped something. it's your resume with a 20 dollar bill taped to it. that's weird. you want to work for ge too. hahaha, what? well we're always looking for developers who are up for big world changing challenges like making planes, trains and hospitals run better. why don't you check your new watch and tell me what time i should be there. oh, i don't hire people. i'm a developer. i'm gonna need monday off. again, not my call. dad, yoh no, i'll take you up to me off rthe front of the school. that's where your friends are. seriously, it's, it's really fine.

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all right. it's 22 past the hour. joining us now, nbc news political director moderator of "meet the press" and host of mtp daily, chuck todd. in chicago. co-founder and executive editor of real clear politics, tom beven. at the big board. msnbc steve kornacki with an in-depth look at the delegate math and whether or not the other candidates have a path forward. let's start with steve. >> let's go to the big board for carol merrill is standing. what have you got? >> where things stand right now heading into super tuesday.

the contest starting to go national. you see the delegate count there on the left-hand side of the screen. trump jumped out to a sizable early lead. a couple of things to look for. georgia, alabama, arkansas, texas. okay. tennessee as well. looking at states here that have varying thresholds. what that means is candidates statewide have to hit a certain percentage. 15 in arkansas. 20 in the others. also 20 in vermont, for that matter, to get any delegates at all. so we talk about ted cruz needing to win texas today. that's a must for him to survive. the other story in texas today, though, is can marco rubio get 20% there to get any delegates at all. we have also had polling in the last couple of days in tennessee that suggests that could be a problem for him there too, maybe even in alabama. if cruz or rubio, for that matter, fail to get 20% in some of these southern states they're not going to be getting any delegates out of those states. what we're looking at here -- we're saying what's a realistic scenario for what happens today.

look at where the polls are, what the demographics are, everybody gets something out of today. maybe ted cruz takes texas, maybe donald trump takes a bunch of states. marco rubio looks fairly strong in minnesota. maybe he collects delegates up here. what would things look like? this is our estimate, a conservative estimate of where things might stand after tonight. the problem for the rest of the republican field, though, if you're chasing donald trump is, everybody stays alive after tonight. if that's what happens. then we have a batch of contests over the next week or so. a lot of which of them set up nicely for trump. this is roughly what things would look like if everybody gets something out of tonight and everybody keeps going. we all talk about march 15th. this is roughly what things would look like coming into march 15th. marco rubio's campaign talks about florida. they could get his home state maybe. they're losing there now. it's a winner take all. even if they got that they would still be trailing donald trump and would still need a strategy to win these other states.

if the race stays muddled after tonight it's probably advantage trump looking forward. >> thank you. >> chuck todd. >> i'm looking to see -- i think trump will win every state but texas. if he doesn't that would be a surprise. i'm curious if ted cruz can win more than just texas. does he have a shot at being able to say, hey, look at me, i've at least won three states. iowa, texas and, say, sneak an oklahoma or win the alaska caucuses before the end of the night. i'm curious. so to me it's really a battle for second. is there any separation between rubio and cruz tonight in delegates. if there is, does the third place guy feel the pressure to get out and make the last stand in -- for the 8th and 15th. >> after tonight marco will have lost how many? >> 0 for 16. >> he'll be 0 for 16. and yet -- and yet, even three, four days ago the republican establishment -- you talk about blind! they were still marching in

lockstep. >> they're not blind. i understand why they're there. they don't think cruz can beat her either. >> i saw a "new york times" article explaining how marco rubio could lose the first 16 races and still win the n nomination. you can look at the transcripts folks. we' we've been talking about trump from the beginning and we've been talking about mao marco rubio's candidacy is little more than a bag of cotton candy. and the "new york times" wrote an article earlier this week that marco could lose everything today, be 0 for 16, and still have a pathway to the nomination. >> i understand the scenario they're outlining. >> you know what. i could at the age of 55 maybe in a couple years be an astronaut and go to mars. >> bill nelson did. so there you go. >> maybe what happened on "the martian" could happen to me. >> we could leave you on mars? >> don't sound so excited,

chuck. >> don't be offering ideas. >> so chuck, think about that. >> mika is all excited. really? send him to mars? >> i like it! >> this is sort of, you all are feeling about me being marooned on mars the way the republican establishment has been dreaming about marco rubio winning the nomination. it's been sheer, sheer fantasy. >> the willing of rubio. >> -- being -- being unbelievably wishful in their thinking about trump losing. >> right. >> and rubio winning. >> here is where it's doubly problematic for rubio tonight. if he is not the clear second place guy in delegates, he did everything all of the back-seat drivers asked him to do. go after trump. get under his skin. be aggressive at the debate. check. check. check. if he is third in delegates and not second, i don't know how rubio makes a case for going forward. that's the -- that it to me is

real -- i have a feeling cruz could be ahead of rubio. >> he's saying i'm going to win florida it will be all good. i don't think he'll win florida but that's his case. >> donald trump appeared on good morning america where he clarified his stance once again on disavowing white supremacist groups. he addressed mitt romney's tweet by calling his response, quote, disgusting and disqualifying. >> first of all, mitt romney is a failed candidate, should have won the race and he failed miserably. he was a terrible candidate for the republicans. secondly david duke and all were disavowed. i disavowed them on friday. i disavowed them right after that because i thought if there was any question -- you look at twitter. almost immediately after on twitter and facebook they were disavowed again. i disavowed them every time i speak to somebody virtually and they just keep it going. they keep it going. they said, oh, we never looked at your twitter account. we never looked at facebook. i said take a look at facebook, it was totally disavowed. >> are you prepared right now to make a clear and unequivocal

statement renouncing the support of all white supremacists? >> of course i am. >> okay. so the caravan rolls on. disavowed, disavowed, disavowed. we'll just have that sunday interview to scratch our head about for the rest of our lives where he says he doesn't know enough about david duke to disavow -- >> he's talked about david duke in the past. >> that's bernie sanders and his wife jane voting in vermont right now. chuck, as offended as many are by the lack of disavowal on sunday with jake tapper, this will not catch up to him tonight as an issue. does it catch up to him in a general election? is this a bigger problem for donald trump? >> i think it's a huge problem. i think, the way african-americans turned out to support barack obama is the way hispanic americans will turn out

to vote against donald trump. this is the issue. we talk about that. this is the problem i have in trying to understand trump's path to 270 electoral votes in this thing. i think he can do better in the northern tier states. i think he can over-perform in places like new jersey, massachusetts, pennsylvania. but does he cut margins and win those states, or is it -- win those states or cut margins. the hispanic turnout. when you are at an 80% unfavorable rating. watch telemundo if you can. you don't have to speak spanish to understand. it's a borderline crusade against trump. how does he carry colorado, florida. arizona gets put into play. georgia and north carolina, the two fastest growing constituency groups are hispanic. that's, to me, the roadblock here for trump. unless he does something radical to fix it. >> then are african-americans, perhaps because of this, do they become equally motivated.

>> i don't know. trump actually i think will do better among african-americans than romney. part of that is no obama. part of it is if you look at polling right now african-american men are supporting donald trump at a higher rate than folks might real lies. >> let's go to tom. we had said yesterday that this was not going to hurt donald trump in the primaries, general election could be something much different if he doesn't clean it up in a significant way. you are looking at numbers today in the super tuesday states that suggests that donald trump is going into the election today very strong. tell us about it. take us through the states. >> well, you're right. the only state that he's not winning is the state of texas where ted cruz has a pretty solid lead there. we have good data out of texas. six polls taken in the last ten days show cruz with a nine-point lead. every other state virtually on the docket, especially states with polling data trump has double-digit leads. the only place where he's under

double digits is oklahoma and he's 8.6%. he is in solid shape. it will be a trump tsunami. the question is how high has the daughter rise. to the point chuck made earlier as far as the delegate totals go in the congressional districts where the vote shakes out. >> if you are marco rubio and you are the republican establishment firmly esconced in washington, d.c., and you've staked your reputation on the fact that the guy can lose the first 15 states and still continue forward, where does marco rubio look in all the states you've been looking at for possible wins to win enough delegates to get out of this and survive? >> well, i mean, we don't have any data in minnesota. we have one poll that was taken in january which is like ten years ago in the way that this race has progressed. that showed rubio up a couple of

points. his campaign is focused there. they're focused in the suburbs of northern virginia. they've been focused in the suburbs of atlanta to try to pick up delegates out of georgia. and in tennessee. rubio is solidly behind trump in all the states. the question is whether he can pick up enough delegates and maybe steal something in minnesota. we don't know the statuses of race there, to get out of this thing with enough delegates and credibility, i guess you could say, to get him all the way to march 15th. >> tom, they were very good at targeting in iowa. marco rubio, who didn't really show up there, targeted around the suburbs of des moines and eastern iowa and ended up with a strong third place finish. about as strong a targeting as i've seen as far as ads go. >> the campaign has a lot of great people who know what they're doing. they've been working their system. but ultimately it's a strategy for second place or third place.

how far does that get you? of course, if he gets to march 15th and loses florida it's over for him. >> chuck, how do you target when there is a tsunami going on outside? >> you do have to do some targeting because of the congressional district aspect. i really wonder if we're underselling ted cruz tonight. because ted cruz -- this is still -- they built their campaign for tonight. i am not saying -- so this is what would make, i think, a rubio second place finish overall for impressive. it would be very problematic for cruz because tonight was suppos supposed to be -- i will be more surprised if rubio is the second place guy because cruz, the way the congressional stuff works, it should be more to his advantage to make sure he hits thresholds in more congressional districts than rubio does. look, that's how you accumulate some underrated -- some underrated delegates. >> and the question is, mika, how much -- how big is the

tsunami that trump has? >> it's big. >> and what does that do for the evangelicals that deserted ted cruz in south carolina? do they stay with him in texas and in the deep south. that's the question. >> it could be a big night for donald trump. tom bevin, thank you very much. chuck. thank you. >> tom, i'll work on the trip to mars for you. >> you offered! >> you were just a little too excited. >> i see you in "the martian," show. >> do you think he'll be able to raise crops the way he raised crops like that? you know. >> if you need fertilizer, you need fertilizer. >> that was the moment in that movie, woo. okay. >> we did it for a couple years in mississippi. the new poll has ben carson as the leading running mate for donald trump but he says he's still in it to win it. and he joins us ahead. hey diddle diddle, the cat and the fiddle,

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tonight. >> there is always the possibility that people will awaken and say what they've been asking for is what's being presented for them. someone who is honest. all the lies that have been told have been debunked. looking for somebody of accomplishment? you look at my life. i don't think anybody could ask for more accomplishment than that. they're asking for somebody who understands them. i have had so many different kinds of jobs, it's unimaginable. and somebody who has gone from the bottom 1% to the top 1%, understands all the socioeconomic levels of our society. and somebody who is an outsider. somebody who is a member of "we the people" and somebody who is honest. if you look at all the things that people are asking for, they sit right here, but a lot of times it's sitting under your nose and you don't recognize it. maybe they will begin to recognize it. but the one thing i do know is that i have millions of social media fans and they're begging me not to get out.

they're continuing to support us tremendously economically. so there is really no reason to disregard what they have to say. >> dr. carson, you have said coming up to super tuesday that only a handful of states have voted and that you reject calls to get out of the race because so few people in the country have voted. after tonight we will have had 16 states voted. if you don't do as well as you hope you do, if you finish in third, fourth in some states, will you re-evaluate your campaign in the morning? >> i re-evaluate the campaign every single day. but one of the major factors for me is our supporters. and that's the reason that i am in here. i'm not in here for the typical reason that a politician would be in here. i'm here because the people asked me to be here, and i will continue to listen carefully to what they have to say. >> dr. carson, has anybody asked you to step out of the race, from the party, other

candidates? if so, who? >> i don't think that it's useful to divulge that because they certainly would be very unhappy if i did. but of course. it's politics as usual in washington, d.c. it's a slimy thing. and the problem is everybody says it's slimy, but why do we accept it? why do we just say that's the way it is and accept it? if we continue to do that we can't really expect anything different. >> mark. >> dr. carson, is today a good test of who is strong in this process? >> it will be a good test of the system and whether the system is still strong and viable and able to control things. >> all right. dr. ben carson, thank you so much. good to have you on the show. we'll be watching tonight. >> thank you. up next, the way things are shaping up, senator ben sasse doesn't like his options when it comes to major party candidates. so much so, he may look outside the two major parties when it comes time to vote in november.

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hewlett packard enterprise. all right. 45 past the hour. joining us now, republican senator ben sasse of nebraska. he says he will not support donald trump if he wins the nomination. >> the senator suggests it. he hints around the corner. a nibble here. a nibble there. >> it's not like he's punting on this. >> let me try this again. i tried something like this with rick santorum. we'll see if he beats around the bush. senator, is there any way you could support donald trump? >> given who this guy is now, i can't see how we think that. i don't think this guy has any more core principles than a kardashian marriage. >> whoa. you said given who this guy is now. >> could he grow? >> could he evolve? could he pivot.

>> do either of you think donald trump has core principles. >> we're asking you the question do you think he can evolve. what we're doing now is dissecting your answer. can he evolve into somebody that you could support? >> i don't think it's conceivable. i think the american people are angry. they have a right to be angry, and they want to scream no about washington. i get that. but they're going to want more choices than two fundamentally dishonest new york liberals. i'm not voting for either of these two people. >> that's pretty equivocal. >> i knew he was equivocal before. i was just having fun. i'm the only one laughing at my jokes this morning. it's a sad morning. who is a constitutional conservative that you would like to see run against donald trump and hillary clinton? >> so, i get the name game and why that might be a little bit fun. >> it's not a name game. >> serious business. >> this is really serious business if you're talking about the future of the republican party. who are some people you would

like to think about running? i am not playing games. >> first of all we have two really good candidates who have a chance to win. so hopefully the american people pick marco rubio or ted cruz. let's start with that. we're at the first day of march. we're nine months away from an election. i think this is a lot more like 1860 than most people realize. a lot of people want to pretend this is november 3rd or 4th. it's not. the american people will want more choices than two dishonest new york liberals. that's what they have now. >> what's the time frame, if you were going to have a co constitutional conservative run on another ticket, maybe as an independent, what's the time line? when would they have to file? >> i don't think the process questions -- first of all your question was have i looked into it. of course not. i've run one election in my life. i have never been a politician. i know what america means and it doesn't mean hillary clinton and donald trump.

it doesn't mean two people who might be indicted between now and november. >> i am a fan of yours. you're making this a lot more difficult. >> he is having a good time, joe. you should be too. >> i am not interested in playing the -- i have had a hundred -- >> i'm not playing games. if you believe the future of our party, our conservative cause and our party is at stake, i'm not interested in playing games either. i'm only interested in getting from here to there. i'm asking you how does that happen. >> you conflated three terms. the meaning of our republic and the definition of america. put that first, the conservative moffi movement second. let's recognize that the republican party is just a tool, as all political parties are. i signed up for the party of abraham lincoln, not the party. david duke, donald trump. >> i'm conflating nothing. you were playing tee ball when i was fighting for conservatism for the republican party and for this party. i have thousands and speeches and words to say it.

but go ahead. >> i believe that, but i really don't -- that was a donald trump level quality swipe at playing tee ball. i get it. >> no. no. what i am saying is i've been doing this for a very long time and i'm trying to be on your side but you're making it increasingly difficult by being defensive towards somebody who might agree with you. >> joe, first of all, i think that we have to acknowledge the decline of the media is breath-taking. >> right. >> i don't believe that and i don't think you believe it. here is what we know comes next. if donald trump becomes the likely republican nominee in 60 days, all of a sudden the media will grow up and take the guy apart in little pieces. because he is not a serious adult. he's not somebody who celebrates america. that's what i am saying. >> you weren't referencing us, i'm sure, there when you were saying media was having fun with

trump, right? >> i'm saying across the media a whole bunch of people -- >> december 8th, i looked this up yesterday, i asked the question is this what nazi germany looked like in 1933. that's not playing with donald trump. we've been very tough all along. >> sometimes you have. have you guys ever pursued it to make him distinguish between why his presidency would be different than dictator x, y or z's. he plays these little race baiting games and plays games with praising putin. he says kim jong-un should be respected. he says the chinese who smashed freedom fighters in tiananmen square should be proud. >> i asked him what exactly do you find attractive with vladimir putin and he started talking about him being a strong man. and i said, you do know he assassinates journalists and that he does assassinate political opponents.

do you find that attractive? >> what did he say? >> there was a back and forth there. he spoke in generallities and i followed up gagain, you do understand he assassinates journalists. so yeah, we've been there. >> i just don't think you should put us in with the rest of the media. >> mika, i couldn't hear you. >> the problem is, senator, a lot of people want to blame the media for what a lot of frustrated people in your party and my party have been doing for the past six to nine months. >> first of all, let's back up and give donald trump credit for this. he -- absolutely, he can recognize an organization that's susceptible to hostile takeover because the republican party has been vac uus for a long time. the core principles of the party haven't been clear. i have lots of problems with the media over the last six to nine months but i have more problems with the republican party over the past six to nine years. >> as do i.

>> donald trump has seized upon a falling-apart organization. but when the american people are mad -- and they're right to be mad. they're right to want to scream no to washington. they're also going to want to be for something and they deserve better than donald trump and hillary clinton and i think ultimately there will be more choices. >> again, i agree with you. i wrote a book in 2004 saying that the republican party was spending too much money and they were too reckless in foreign policy and they were -- >> true, true. >> been there, done that. the question is, how do you get there from here? >> so let's admit that there are >>. >> so let's admit there are nine months between now and the election and the world is going to change lots and lots of times between then and now. i hope it happens over the course of the next 30 to 60 days that the republican party again becomes the party of abraham lincoln, limited government and great human potential. i want to celebrate what's great about america in the republican party, but if the republican party becomes the party of david duke, donald trump, i'm out. and i think lots and lots and

lots of people are out. >> okay. >> so ultimately there will be more choices than these two if trump is the nominee. >> and so since i asked you the process question you haven't looked into it. >> i have not. >> let me ask you guys. so you guys have examined this before because michael bloomberg talked about doing it four years ago, other people have talked about doing it. the senator says there's lots of time until the election, there is a lot of time until the election, there is not a lot of time for a constitutional conservative to come out and run as an independent. what are the deadlines for third party races? >> to be on all 50 state ballots in order to raise the money, get the signatures done, get on 50 states with 50 set of rules if you're not ratcheted up in two weeks you can't do it. >> two weeks from now? >> you can attach yourself to an existing party that's already on the ballot line, you can attach yourself to the green ballot, you would have to attach yourself to one of those parties. >> okay. that will give you a little more

time. >> you still have to raise the money. >> the type of candidate the senator and i would support would not be allowed on the green party. >> unclear. >> all right. >> ben sasse, thank you. >> the green party may change in these circumstances, you never know. >> moej will be right back. at ally bank, no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like bill splitting equals nitpicking. but i only had a salad. it was a buffalo chicken salad. salad.

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no. >> i like ben sasse. >> yes, you do. >> you like him, too. >> still ahead it's clear voters are frustrated and angry but

why? tom brokaw tries to get that answer ahead on "morning joe." to the top 1%. it's a system held in place by corrupt politics where wall street banks and billionaires buy elections. my campaign is powered by millions of small contributions. people like you who want to fight back. the truth is you can't change a corrupt system by taking its money. i'm bernie sanders. i approve this message. join us for real change. i use what's already inside me to reach my goals. so i liked when my doctor told me i may reach my blood sugar and a1c goals by activating what's within me. with once-weekly trulicity. trulicity is not insulin. it helps activate my body to do what it's supposed to do release its own insulin. trulicity responds when my blood sugar rises. i take it once a week, and it works 24/7. it comes in an easy-to-use pen

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and together we are going to bring justice to a broken criminal justice system. [ cheers and applause ] >> it's getting hot in here. all right. we're getting warmed up here.

>> yes, things are getting warmed up. he's a rock star. he took off his jacket and threw it. >> reminded me of like elvis in '76 in vegas. get him one of those scarves. >> today is a critical day in the race for president as voters across the country head to the polls. it's exciting. >> on the republican side 595 delegates are up for grabs, nearly half the total that is needed to lock down the nomination. the democrats, mean while, are fighting much of the same territory from vermont to virginia, massachusetts to minnesota with donald trump and hillary clinton in commanding positions. >> it may be the last best chance for their white house rivals to stop their march to the general election. so along with joe, willie and me we have the managing editors of bloomberg politics mark halperin and john heilemann. can i call you the game change boy or is it circus or is it -- oh, my gosh. >> the circus boys. >> so many brands. >> okay.

so let's start here and let's just go ahead and just -- i will always been a big fan of killing hamlet in the first act. >> you tend to do that. >> the last two pages of every book, willie, why not, you know? sherlock i was watching with my daughter last night, you know, she gets -- she's 12, very excited, sitting there watching go, you know, at the end he's not really dead. that's what i do. so let's do that -- >> norman baits -- >> i have everything in order so it really flows for people. >> this is beautiful because i'm an organized laid out guy. on the republican side, nobody stops trump today, do they? like even texas is tight. >> no. i mean, i think he may win them all and he will have a lot of delegates and he will have all the momentum and i think its question will be begged who is left to stop him. >> john heilemann, ted cruz sure is sounding right now like he

knows this race is over. he's talking about how trump is going -- could win huge today and even texas, i just saw a poll out that shows texas now very tight. you've got nascar drivers coming out. >> the head of nascar. >> the head of nascar. i mean, katie bar the door. he is at 49% in the latest national poll. come on, stick a fork in it, this one is done, right? >> look, we've seen as you guys reported yesterday there is a lot of chaos in the republican party right now. >> yeah. >> so the republican establishment finally has woken up to the fact that donald trump is the likely nominee and is kind of freaking out and has some reasons to do that. you can imagine a scenario today where ted cruz gets beaten in texas and decides to hang it up relatively soon thereafter and that leaves marco rubio if he has a strong day with a lot of strong seconds today in a position to further his argument that he is the person, the last best hope to stop donald trump. now, you can say what you want

to say about that argument, but he will be coming out of here conceivably in that scenario in a position where he says, look, everybody has to rally around me. the establishment is where it is right now you can imagine that happening after today. it might be too late, but happening after today in a way it hasn't happened thus far. >> the question is why it took them so long to get there, willie geist. you know, i love the revisionist out there that we knew that -- no. we were in july, august, september, october, november, december still having people on this set fighting us over donald trump. i remember one very esteemed person saying, so you're saying he's going to win? i know you guys want him to win. no. that's not what we're saying. what we're saying is you can't provide data to show that he's not going to win. and so then they would come back and say, oh, okay, so you're saying he is going to win. no, we're not saying that. it's been astounding, though,

the arrogance of the elites in the republican party and a lot of our good friends, i wish i could show all the people that have come through here since july making fun of us for saying this day was going to come. >> i'm going to get a pickup truck because of that. >> we can make fun of one guy. >> we love mike. >> we love mike barnicle. he's legendary, but to show you how bad it was mika said early on donald trump is going to win the republican nomination. everybody laughed. she bet mike barnicle a pickup truck. and she's going to win a pickup truck. >> you didn't really bet him a pickup truck, right, it was just a one-way bet. you didn't put a truck on the line yourself. >> she's got a piece of paper because she knew he was going to win. and she also before anybody else was saying was saying he could win a general election. so the question is if we saw this from july, right, why didn't the republican party see

this? why didn't the elite see this? >> they didn't do homework. >> now that they've seen it it's too late. we read the piece over the weekend about the republican establishment and governors situation getting in a room and saying we have to figure out how to stop trump. i don't think people actually believed this day was going to come. they thought somehow it was going to implode. this can't be real that donald trump reality star, businessman, blow hard is going to be president of the united states or the nominee at least. no one believed it was going to happen and here it is and marco rubio for all the fight he put up the last week, and he did, he did what a lot of people asked him to do, now if he loses all these states today, which he probably will, now he's putting his campaign on march 15th in florida at which point he will have gone a month and a half with zero wins in a republican primary. >> after today he could be 0 for 15, 0 for 16. >> yeah. >> we could go back and find -- i'm sure we will, but do you remember, willie, every day i'd

say, okay, it's august, when is this going to stop? people say trump can't win. then i go it's september, october, we did this all the way through december people were still saying he would never win. you know, mika, we've actually been hammered by people saying, oh, you're supporting donald -- no, we are not supporting donald trump and we haven't supported donald trump. there is a great article in the washington post yesterday where somebody said even giving him a chance suggesting that his candidacy might be viable was so misperceived by an arrogant mainstream media that just saying he had a chance to win meant you were somehow supporting him. and it's just a lie and it's been a lie. i've said very clearly on this show that i supported jeb bush time and time again. but we saw the viability here, nobody else did, and that's just -- other than steve schmidt was the only other person that came on early on this set and said it. >> could i ask you a question?

>> yes. >> so what is the republican party -- yesterday you said what trumped said about the ku klux klan was disqualifying. what is the republican party going to do if their presumptive nominee mass been in your view disqualified. >> a couple of things. i was flooded with e-mails and texts yesterday. >> your brother. >> i was texting with my brother all day. >> they have not been getting along. >> by 12:30 i said it would be best if you stopped texting me and said i was part of a great conspiracy. >> this is joe. george. george. >> and a member of the one world order. >> george, stop texting me. it got ugly. >> i think george thought that i was the head of the tri-lateral commission by the end of yesterday. i finally said, listen, it may be disqualifying for me. respect my opinion. it's not disqualifying for you. i said, you know, just like we've said all along he's going

to win the republican nomination. so it's not disqualifying for him, the crowds are bigger, you know, i said what i believed personally. can i vote for a guy who still hasn't come out and condemned the ku klux klan, no, but a lot of people can. what does the republican party do. i'll tell you what they do, i'm getting flooded by e-mails of people going, hey, listen, could you help me, i would like to run his state operations in fill in the blank. so obviously the establishment is starting to come together. they don't care what he said. do you know why? because he is a winner and we are in that season right now. >> well, there is backlash and it does continue for donald trump after he hedged on his position of support for david duke and the ku klux klan on sunday. this of course a man who is so quick to call somebody a liar or a creep or a bad guy, which is something that didn't come to his mouth very quickly when he was asked about david duke. so he did not personally address

the controversy yesterday beyond his comments on the "today" show. sticking with his stump speech at his rallies. his opponents, however, stayed on the issue, 2012 republican nominee mitt romney called his answer disqualifying and disgusting. adding his coddling of repugnant big tree is not in the character of america. this as others piled on. >> i've joked that there are not many iron rules in politics but one that you can count on 100% of the time is the klan always bad. nazis, always bad. you just -- you'll never go wrong with that rule. either the klan or nazis, bad, bad, bad and it seems somehow that donald missed that briefing. >> south carolina went through a terrible tragedy last year and the kkk came to south carolina from out of state to protest on our state house grounds. i will not stop until we fight a

man that chooses not to disavow the kkk. that is not a part of our party. that's not who we want as president. we will not allow that in our country. >> do you realize that if he's our nominee americans will say a republican is someone like donald trump. a conservative means donald trump. we are going to lose a generation of voters and a generation of americans, most of whom want to be nothing like donald trump. there is no room in the conservative movement and there is no room in the republican party for members of the ku klux klan or fora leisists like donad duke. >> some advice on his new supporter senator jeff sessions of alabama and an i'm parksed

defense from his spokesman katrina pierson who evoked the late senator robert byrd from west virginia. >> senator robert byrd, are you kidding me? hillary clinton -- >> what are you saying about robert byrd? >> he endorsed barack obama and no one said, oh, his political career is over. >> robert byrd, are you -- are you comparing robert byrd to david duke? >> we're talking about a klansman, a klansman, particularly one who actually fill bust erred civil rights movement. >> that's a smear. >> david duke denounced the kkk a long time ago, too. >> the right answer to this is this country does not discriminate. no president, no officer in this country should hold office that has any hint of treating people differently because of the color of their skin or where they came from and that kind of thing. we believe in equality and fair treatment and that's the moral principle that we adhere to as a

nation and i hope he makes that clear. >> jeff sessions came out strongly, willie geist, yesterday and just said, hey, i don't know exactly how he answered t but this is what he needs to say. >> yeah. we heard a lot of that. and he has endorsed donald trump so that's why that was significant. a talking point from the donald trump campaign that we heard from governor huckabee is, oh, yeah, robert byrd endorsed barack obama and he didn't disavow robert byrd, robert byrd is half a century removed from his affiliation with the klan. i'm not sure that's a fair comparison. >> let's get to the democrats. it's going to be a steep climb for senator bernie sanders. because of hillary clinton's massive lead among super delegates the total count headed into today's contest is clinton 519, sanders 86. the clinton campaign is sending around $6.4 million across all 11 states voting today while sanders is on the airwaves in

just five states. recent polling shows clinton leading by anywhere between 20 and 50 points in each of the southern contests today, but other polls suggest sanders has a chance to pick off some states in the northeast and midwest. a new monmouth poll out of oklahoma has him ahead by five points and the new umass amherst poll shoels the race in massachusetts is a dead heat and that's where the senator held his final pre super tuesday rally last night. >> do you know what, i look around this crowd tonight, i think we're going to win here [ cheers and applause ] >> when we began we had no money, we had no political organization and people outside of new england really didn't know who bernie sanders was and we were taking on perhaps one of the best known people in this

country. somebody who has been appointed by the establishment as the democratic nominee. well, a lot has changed in the last ten months. [ cheers and applause ] >> no matter the outcome today sanders certainly has the war chest to fight on. the $21 million he took in january was the most raised of any presidential candidate in the entire field. and yesterday his campaign announced that they doubled that total in the month of february, raising more than $41 million. >> so what's the breakdown today? after this is over tonight are we looking at a big hillary clinton win and does bernie sanders -- he has the money to fight on. where does he catch up with her? >> he can't. i would think it would be probably close to mathematically possible if she wins in all the

place she's leading. she will win big victories in places like georgia and texas, she's fighting him in the pew states he has tried to fight. oklahoma that mon moth poll has her within the margin of error in oklahoma. he said i'm going to fight in oklahoma, minnesota, colorado, massachusetts, vermont. she could win massachusetts, she could win oklahoma. if she wins a couple of those states in addition to all the ones where she wins because there is a huge margin that she has with the african-american vote she could wake up tomorrow winning 9 or 10 out of 12. >> was the turning point all nevada? if bernie had won nevada would all have -- what has happened in the last two weeks? >> he didn't even need to win it, they just needed to play the expectations game better. that cnn poll showed out, showed them tied and they acted like they were going to win. a 5 point loss was not really that bad in the expectations game but they mishandled it, changed the whole thing around. could he beat her in michigan,

maybe, but the delegate math after tonight is going to be inexorable. they're going to start to argue that there is no way for him to catch up unless he starts beating her 60/40 or better. >> when we wake up tomorrow morning are we going to be saying barring some unforeseen circumstance hillary clinton will be going up against donald trump in the fall? >> the voters should decide in all the subsequent states but mathematically and lonl clee that is what we will see. >> let the voters decide, but -- >> the key difference between the two scenarios the republican party there are winner take all states. the democratic party doesn't have that so they will have the situation where because of proportional delegate allocation she says, look, he's going to have to win -- bernie sanders in order to catch up would have to win victories with 60, 61, 62% those are just not going to happen which will make it hard for him ever to catch up. >> bernie will keep fighting all the way to the convention -- >> well, the other big thing is she will start to reach out to

him and his supporters -- >> there will be one person to help her do that. >> elizabeth warren. >> probably. >> still ahead on "morning joe," donald trump wins the backing of some big names in nascar as we looks to lap the republican field. plus the year of rage. nbc's tom brokaw joins us to talk about the foundations of one of the most bitter years in american politics. but first bill karins with a check on the forecast that could bring rough weather to super tuesday states. bill. >> mika, already is. voting opens up in ten minutes in arkansas. we've been watching thunderstorms rolling through arkansas all night long. right now they just passed south of little rock and trying to drift towards mississippi and memphis. wet weather on interstate 30 and 40 in arkansas. we were at 22 million people, but we took much of the state of arkansas out of this now that the storms are pushing out. 90 million people at risk.

much of the state of tennessee as we go through areas of alabama and georgia, those are all states that will be voting today. your super tuesday forecast, here is all the states that are first voting and we are actually going to be a winter side to this storm, too, that's going to be illinois, wisconsin and michigan where you are not voting today. up to the north vermont, massachusetts, no problems whatsoever, mostly sunny, clouds on the increase, there will be a snowstorm tonight and ice storm, but no problems right now. the problem states, tennessee, alabama and georgia as those line of storms will go through, only 30 minutes it will take to go in and out, you don't want to get caught outside of a polling place when what happens. colorado looks great, chilly north dakota and minnesota, but at least any snow or ice today on this super tuesday. washington, d.c. has had a stretch of great weather, looks like some cold stuff is heading our way on the days ahead. more "morning joe" when when come back. ♪ every auto insurance policy has a number. but not every insurance company understands

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we're winning with old, we're winning with young, we're winning with highly educated. right? we're winning with a little bit less than highly educated, which is okay. i love you. and we're winning with the veterans. i love the veterans. we're winning with the military. in other words, we're winning with everybody. >> and with nascar drivers as well. that was donald trump last night at an event in south georgia in front of another massive crowd. he picked up the support of the ceo of nascar and some big name drivers including bill elliott. >> mika, one of the biggest problems for the republican establishment trying to stop donald trump is from the very beginning we were noticing talking about him winning with everybody -- that's my brother. >> i'll take it.

i don't want to see the two of you fight. >> so the difference is with other candidates it used to be in the republican establishment was split up in all these different directions. donald trump as he said is winning with everybody. you can't go into a poll and say we'll pick him off here or there. he was winning with the evangelicals, winning with conservatives, been winning with mod rats, even winning with people considered to be more liberal in the party. so when you're winning in every demographic group -- >> it's hard to cut to the core. >> it is hard to figure out are we going to pick him off here or there. >> some republican party brass are trying to figure out what strategy that hasn't already been tried to work to stop trump. "the new york times" reports that the party's calendar designed to prevent messy fighting has greased the path. at least two campaigns have drafted plans to overtake mr. trump in a brokered convention. >> lots of luck. >> mitch mcconnell has a plan to

allow lawmakers to go their own way in the general ee collection. jen corrine alleged many will have to separate themselves from trump if somebody like him is the nominee. >> this is the republican party still not really getting it. and i always use kelly ayotte as the perfect example. would you rather have donald trump at the top of the ticket or ted cruz? if you're kelly ayotte would you rather have donald trump at the top of the candidate or a candidate named marco rubio that still is saying there is not an exception for abortion even in rape, incest or the life of the mother? that's not a rhetorical question. >> you would rather have john kasich. >> well, but that's -- you know, maybe that will happen, but i wouldn't put my money on it right now. if you're looking, though, they choice between trump and the two people right now that are going up against donald trump this argument is an argument that

it's truly born out of washington. i guarantee you they were saying the same thing about ronald reagan at this point in 1976 and 1980. >> the difference is there are leading figures in the republican party who will never accept donald trump as the nominee. >> right. >> that just wasn't the case. reagan brought the party together in a big way. >> let's see. >> look, you are already starting to hear we had chris todd whitman on our show and dan cenore, one a former elected official, one a big thinker. they both said they would never vote for trump. i think there's hundreds of establishment republicans who over the next few weeks will come out and say i'd rather vote for hillary clinton than vote for donald trump and they will say it now over the course of the next few weeks and that was not true of reagan in '76. >> you also see people now -- people always follow the power

in washington, d.c., blindly follow the power. you're also going to see some people moving towards consolidati consolidation. >> 100%. >> coming up on "morning joe" -- >> we also need to do more for minority and women small owned businesses because that's where most of the jobs come from. and let's finally guarantee equal pay for women's work in the workplace. >> the shifting demographics of women and how they vote. our next guest argues single women are not looking for a feminist hero so where does that leave the next generation and hillary clinton? that story and tom brokaw joins the table ahead on "morning joe."

out on the town or in for the night, at&t helps keep everyone connected. right now at at&t, buy one get one free on our most popular smartphones. no matter how you hang out, share every minute of it. buy one get one free on our most popular smartphones. and right now, get up to $650 in credits per line to help you switch to at&t. most new wealth flows it's called a rigged economy, and this is how it works. to the top 1%. it's a system held in place by corrupt politics where wall street banks and billionaires buy elections. my campaign is powered by millions of small contributions. people like you who want to fight back. the truth is you can't change a corrupt system by taking its money. i'm bernie sanders. i approve this message. join us for real change.

welcome back. i don't like that. >> no, it's -- >> i don't like that. >> it's the ring finger. >> i know that. they could have found a better one. joining us now attorney and republican strategist ben ginsburg, also with us writer at large for new york magazine rebecca tracer who is not responsible for the cover. >> great cover. >> an aulter of a new book "all the single ladies, unmarried women and the rise of an independent nation." in the cover story rebecca says the single american woman is the most powerful voter of 2016 particularly among democrats. her article reads in part this, single women may not be looking

for a feminist hero. they may just want their affordable college, higher wages and paid sick days. the question in this year of the single woman is whether the first truly plausible female presidential candidate can recognize how much her constituency has changed and capitalized on thighs changes or if we will get overtaken by this growing group of independent women voters responding to more optimistic promises. >> rebecca, eight years has been a lifetime. hillary clinton ran in 2008 and mobilized all women behind the cause, the great cause. eight years later -- >> where are they going? >> the numbers are astounding. >> they're going in lots of directions. they're going toward in some cases in the earliest states predominantly white young women and single women broke hugely for bernie sanders who was offering a morass piration nl, more image tifl left vision of policy. on policy there is not a lot of daylight between them, but

hillary's presentation is much more pragmatic and less optimistic and all encompassing. single women tend to vote less. now, by the way, in south carolina single women broke hugely for hillary, most blacks broke hugely for hillary, single and married women both broke for hillary. really the bigger story for 2016 is single women vote democrat and they will vote for whichever one of these candidates winds up the democratic no, ma'am me probably in huge numbers. the question is how many will come out to vote in november. >> what were the issues bringing them to bernie even if hillary clinton wins the nomination and these women then go to her, what happened? >> well, i think that in part he is promising sort of in simpler terms things like free college, a higher minimum wage. he's talking less about but has in his platform subsidized child care, paid leave, they are both talking about equal paid protections but bernie's bigger

promises i think really appealed strongly to women entering work forces, entering colleges in greater and greater numbers every day and who don't have social policies behind them in the way that social policies have backed traditionally married white men throughout our history. single women untethered from marriage need all kinds of different social policies to accommodate their role as wage earners and, you know, moving into the work force. >> right. >> ben, let's look on the republican side. mark halperin and i were talking, i always ask what are the kids saying. some of the kids still say there's a chance that the establishment stops trump. isn't it all over but the crying? >> well, it's a triple bank shot. you need to do some judicious bargain shopping in the southern states where you can get two delegates for the price of one, mitt romney got 38% of the popular vote, 58% of the delegates by targeting particular congressional districts. that's basically what either rubio or cruz would have to do tonight. >> we look at the numbers and it does seem like a tsunami heading

everybody's way and the tsunami's name, trump. >> well, the freight train seems to be coming down the track. i mean, again, these campaigns have spent the last year developing microtargeting strategies for finding their voters. we're going to see tonight whether it works. one of the real problems that they had is they may be -- their universes may be actually producing trump voters instead of cruz and rubio voters so when they call them to go out and you're actually increasing trump's -- >> and, mark halperin, that's what we saw in south carolina, evangelicals broke hard for trump, the we people that ted cruz was counting on helping him win the state. >> you look at previous republican nominees and how they got the nomination. almost all of them you could find demographic orgy graphic holes in their support, they were strong enough to win the nomination but had regional or demographic weaknesses. trump i think tonight will be looking at the wins and loss gs but will look at the exit poll, too. i suspect in a lot of states a guy who can win massachusetts

and alabama is pretty impressive in terms of the breadth of the support. >> and the fact that his two strongest regions in the study a few weeks ago by "the new york times," mika, were alabama and upstate new york. >> exactly. and, rebecca, finally, what most surprised you in doing the work for this book? >> i think what surprised me i went into it thinking this was a contemporary phenomenon, that this generation right now who is not marrying in these tremendous numbers is the revolution and as soon as i started to look back through american history what i found is that there have been other periods where women had far less economic opportunities, sexual liberty but where they still stopped marrying and actually radically changed the world. in the 19th century when lots of men moved west and many of them died in the civil war there were many women on the east coast who didn't marry and they devoted their energies to things like the abolition, suffrage movements, labor movements, expanding secondary education for women and in many ways they

altered the constitution. >> fantastic. the book is "all the single ladies" rebecca, thank you for coming on the show. congratulations on the book. ben ginsburg. >> and the cover story, new york magazine. >> boy, you're busy. that cover is just -- still ahead, some things are just as true now as they were then. >> i want you to get up now. i want all of you to get up out of your chairs. i want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it and stick your head out and yell, i'm as mad as hell and i'm not going to take this anymore. >> nbc's tom brokaw joins us next with a look at what exactly has fueled the anger behind this cycle's electorate. we will be right back. every day you read headlines about businesses

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keep your family connected. app-connect. on the newly redesigned passat. from volkswagen. at ally bank, no branches equals great rates. it's a fact. kind of like vacations equal getting carried away. more proactive selling. what do you think michal? i agree. let's get out there. let's meet these people. trolling for a gig with can't blame you. it's a drone you control with your brain, which controls your thumbs, which control this joystick. no, i'm actually over at the ge booth. we're creating the operating system for industry. it's called predix. it's gonna change the way the world works. ok, i'm telling my brain to tell the drone to get you a copy of my resume. umm, maybe keep your hands on the controller. look out!! ohhhhhhhhhh... you know what, i'm just gonna email it to you. yeah that's probably safer. ok, cool. there is a great anger out

there and people say, oh, trump has captured the anger of the world and the anger -- it's actually a world anger. it's this country because this country has made so many bad decisions it overflows outside of this country, but there is a real anger and they always write about the anger. i don't think about it. i don't think like i captured anything. i just say what i say and i say what i say because it's common sense. >> well, that was donald trump speaking this weekend about the great anger many american voters are feeling. anger has been a major force on both sides of this presidential campaign and nbc news special correspondent tom brokaw has been looking into the source of that frustration. >> this all started on 9/11 when america became a different country. a surprise attack that shattered our sense of security. america has been attacked and it has been changed. >> but the war against iraq went disastrously wrong. no weapons of mass destruction,

that saddam hussein army became part of isis while american forces paid a heavy price. >> so the homes banks and wall street drove america into a great recession, the housing scam, now an oscar winning film the big short. >> eventually things go south. when the hell did we forget all that? >> wall street was bailed out but the working and middle classes lost homes, jobs and confidence in government. >> i've been doing everything on my end the way i'm supposed to and just because they haven't been doing what they're supposed to do it just leaves us almost really homeless. >> president obama promised change but he initiated a blue state agenda, healthcare overhaul, same-sex marriage and met intractable gop opposition. >> you lie. >> congressional republicans were not interested in negotiation or compromise.

they had their own problems with the tea party. the rich, 1% of the country, got richer, while the working and middle class were stuck in neutral or reverse. their college kids ran up big debt. the war in the middle east escalated. young american warriors less than 1% of our population went back again and again. >> we have at least 20 victims. >> and then terrorism came home, this time in california. while in small towns and big cities police, race and racists became a deadly brew. america seemed to be broken. >> the condition of the capital dome in a met for for our time. it needs mixing but that work is under way. that goes on beneath the dome and in the rest of washington, that will take longer and it won't be solved with rhetoric alone. >> and tom joins us now. >> you know, tom, you go back to the beginning of this century the actions started with the

2000 recount and september 11th, enron, wmds, katrina, an economic felt down, endless wars, we go on and on and on. there has been every year another reason for americans to get angrier and feel more disconnected from their government. >> i think everything that people took for granted, security, fair play, that everyone will have a shot at this all went by the boards and went by the boards for a variety of reasons and the people that were left isolated and angry out there are the very people who are voting for donald trump. he gives them voice in their own way even though as we've said before in iowa and new hampshire those states have done pretty well, 3% unemployment, iowa has agriculture and des moines as we all saw is a city on the rise again, social conservatism in new hampshire. he could say whatever he wanted to. they were still going to vote for him. so angry -- the anger is unchecked it seems to me.

>> it's on both sides. >> there is an ideological basis. >> no, i said it's not ideological where donald trump in south carolina can support planned parenthood that would have been death for any republican candidate before or after, but the anger seems to trump that, right? >> it does. they are trying day in and day out, hour in and hour out to send a message to washington. we all heard wherever we went before this election cycle began why can't they talk to each other? what's going on back there? it's a separate and unequal state that exists within the belt way and donald trump came along and gave voice to that even though on so many instances, including the last 24 hours, he went completely off the grid as you said eloquently yesterday when he couldn't condemn the kkk, but still is holding his lead in the polls. we've never been through anything like this. now, i've been around a while. 1968 was a very hard year.

you have to remember that johnson was driven from office, dr. king and bobby kennedy were both killed, we lost 16,000 people in vietnam that year, we had the riots not just in chicago but also at the republican convention in miami, we had george wallace who was a kind of take no prisoners and set fire to everything as a candidate and hue better humphrey running. that was a wild and wicked time as well. i was at that point 28 years old, in the midst of all this and i thought, my god this is not the america that i thought i was going to grow up in, but we worked our way out of it. >> part of what's happening is the mood of the country as you're talking about. had trump noft run would someone like trump have been able to do well or is this really as much about him as it is about the mood of the country? >> i think it's a lot about him. look, he plays the culture of celebrity, we can't underestimate that. the country is decided by celebrity, the kardashians are a perfect example of that. all the shows that are dedicated

to it, that's another piece of it. ted cruz probably would have played to it, but he wasn't quite as winning in that kind of show biz way as donald trump has been. >> some would say not close. >> and trump didn't arrive just when the campaign began, trump has been a figure out there, fifth avenue people are standing in front of the t to get their pictures taken. >> throngs of people. >> ben. >> what's interesting you mentioned 1968 as a tough time that we worked our way out of. >> yeah. >> look to the future a little bit and how do we work our way out of this one, what happens, is it electing trump, repud yagt trump, how does the country come out of this? >> i don't think it's a single event. i think that the parties have to take responsibility what happened to the democrats, for example, they found a third way. they didn't get stuck as far on the left as they had been and that led to the election of bill clinton who could play across party lines at that point. but now what happens is that the mechanisms so feed a lot of this anger. i'm in touch with my friends at

bright bart a lot, they have their own system going all 24/7, they are very smart, they know where their folks are and they play to what they see and find unacceptable 24/7. so a lot of the instrumentation is designed to keep people stirred up, quite honestly. and then you can't underestimate social media, as i have a often said, there is a guy out there it in his underwear no couldn't get a date for prom and he's throwing grenades day after day and people think it's legitimate. >> we will be right back with much more "morning joe" including what happens what we learned today. it's a lot. you focus on making great burgers, or building the best houses in town. or becoming the next highly-unlikely dotcom superstar. and us, we'll be right there with you, helping with the questions you need answered to get your brand new business started. we're legalzoom and we've already partnered

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now time to talk about what we learned today. mika. >> i learned from tom this this anger is very complicated and comes from both sides of the aisle over decades. >> mark. >> while the establishment shouldn't give up if they want to stop donald trump they are still being kind of unrealistic about how and the chances. >> ben. >> 73% of the delegates chosen for the republican national convention will be done in state parties and by state executive committees and state conventions, the candidate has no input into who those people are. >> predictions, tom, tonight. >> i've said this before, but one of the things that also troubles me is that there are a lot of things going on outside of the campaign culture. we had another school shooting yesterday, it's the fifth one in

year, we have had more than 350 people killed by gunfire and domestic disputes in the last year in this country. it's invisible in the dialogue in the country and i think that's outrageous. i've learned that we have a long way to go before we get connected to what's real and what's not. >> all right. tom brokaw, thank you. that does it for us this morning. did you learn anything? >> i learned it's going to be a big night tonight and -- >> just watching up to it. >> learned it's going to be a big time tonight and i suspect the republican establishment in washington, d.c. is going to wake up tomorrow morning and realize all of the illusions that they have been thinking about and all of the nursery bedtime stories they have been telling themselves over the past six months ended up just being fables. they are going to have to wake up to a new reality that they are going to find very ugly. >> steve kornacki picks up the super tuesday coverage after a quick break. we will see you right here tomorrow morning.

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accelerating transformation. accelerating next. hewlett packard enterprise. and good morning. i'm steve kornacki. welcome to super tuesday 2016. it is the day that we have been waiting for when it could end presidential dreams for some and one that could put nominations within reach for others. nearly 900 delegates up for

grabs today on the democratic side, almost 600 for the republicans. that's half the number you need to win the republican nomination on this day alone and among those republicans the odds on favorite today remains donald trump whose national lead has actually been growing in recent days creating the possibility that more voters may decide to jump on the trump bandwagon at the last minute. our new msnbc survey monkey on line national poll puts trump at 40%. that is more than marco rubio and ted cruz combined and maybe more importantly for trump when he's matched against both of them on one-on-one contests he beats them both, rubio by 6 points, cruz by 13 points. as for today's battle grounds trump goes into the day leading in most of the states up for grabs, he is down in texas, that's ted cruz's home state. minnesota and arkansas also look close, you might want to keep an eye on virginia as well, that's a state the rubio team would